In a prospective, double-blind study, Ankur Bansal, MD, and Aditi Arora, MD, of Janak Surgicare Centre in Pitiala, Punjab, India, enrolled 450 men with benign prostatic hyperplasia who planned to undergo TURP and randomized them into 3 groups of 150 patients each. Group 1 received placebo, group 2 received finasteride 5 mg/day, and group 3 received dutasteride 0.5 mg/day for 4 weeks prior to TURP.

The finasteride and dutasteride recipients had significantly less mean blood loss than the placebo group (168.7 and 162.4 mL vs. 265.3 mL, respectively) the researchers reported online ahead of print in the Journal of Endourology. They also had less prostatic and suburethral MVD. A higher proportion of men in the placebo group than in the finasteride and dutasteride groups required blood transfusion (9.3%, 2.7% and 2.0%, respectively). Results showed no significant differences in variables between the finasteride and dutasteride groups.